MCI Response to PQ on Cellular Phone Jams at Large scale Crowd Events

Parliament Sitting on 28 November 2022

QUESTION FOR WRITTEN ANSWER

39. Mr Murali Pillai: To ask the Minister for Communications and Information what mitigation strategy is put in place to deal with cellular phone jams occurring at large-scale crowd events that have a potential to develop into public order situations.

Answer:

1. For large-scale crowd events where mobile cellular network traffic in the vicinity could be higher than usual, the Infocomm Media Development Authority works with mobile network operators to implement measures to increase capacity. This is already the case for events such as the National Day Parade. Such measures range from optimising their networks that serve the event areas, to the deployment of additional network equipment. Mobile networks are closely monitored, and engineers will be on standby to address network issues. Voice calls are also prioritised over Internet access on mobile networks, to ensure callers are able to reach emergency services.